After promising time after time that the Delta/Northwest merger would not result in the closure of any hubs, Delta take steps to close the Cincinnati Airport base.
One more example of where airlines speak with forked tongue.
The airline will be shutting down its crew base affecting 225 pilots. Delta’s flight from Cincinnati to Paris will still operate, however, the crew will be based elsewhere and have to commute to work.
At one time, Delta planned to add several international destinations from Cincinnati beyond the Paris service. But the memos say Delta’s ability to flow aircraft out of larger hubs, the increasing emphasis on New York’s JFK airport as an international gateway and the growth of New York’s LaGuardia Airport as its primary hub in the Northeast have caused those plans to change.
Back when the merger was being considered, pundits, myself included, noted that it would be about impossible for Delta to maintain four hubs — Minneapolis, Cincinnati, Memphis and Detroit — so close to each other. Our words were prophetic, based on the realities of air transportation. The Delta pronouncements were made only to get their merger approved.
Without the merger, Cincinnati would be the only Delta hub in the midwest and almost certainly would still be operating. The promises of cost savings still haven’t made it to Delta’s bottom line, but layoffs in Cincinnati are affecting the bottom lines of many locals.
Though Delta still lists Cincinnati as a “hub,” Delta officials that their airline’s current daily departures from Cincinnati only number roughly 165-175. More flights are handled in Memphis, another soon-to-forgotten “hub.”
I guess the concept of “hub” can be a reworked a bit in terms of definition.
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
It gets worse … the lease forced on the airport during the Delta bankruptcy requires the airport to operate two completely separate terminals (one for Delta and one for everyone else) when the majority of the Delta gates are empty. The airport can’t even attempt to lease the unused Delta gates (there’s an entire empty terminal that Delta owns the rights to). Delta also “arm twisted” them into a major expansion of the screening area for the Delta terminal which is mostly empty now.
Gotta love airlines.
I’ll miss Cincinnati, I was a frequent connector there many years ago, to the point that the stass at the Crown Room (am I dating myself with that name) knew me pretty well.
Concourse C was a good concept too.
You missed the other one that will be closing, Memphis. It has seen some reduction in service but in time it will go and then we will see if both Detroit and Minneapolis can survive.
I’m betting that Detroit dies as a “hub.”
You’re right about Memphis, I’ll add it into the story now.
As I heard, only the 767 crews would be relocating to another base.
That certainly does not constitute “closing a hub” by a long shot. Sounds to me like Faux News is infiltrating this site!
Well, Delta still calls it a “hub.” I mention that in the last two paragraphs, but with flights dropping from almost 500 to less than 200 a day, the definition of hub is being stretched. It may be faux news or a faux hub.
While I don’t think Delta should have been so definitive in saying they were staying, anyone with half a brain should have known is wasn’t to be.
This is like Pittsburgh and US Airways. US Airways said they were staying, but it didn’t make sense that they would.
Delta has lost a lot of business at CVG due to the their high fares out of the Cincinnati market. People have been driving for years to IND, CMH, DAY and SDF because of the high fares.
For many of us in the Southeast- CVG was a solid alternative to ATL for both domestic and international flights. While we had to take COMAIR to get there once arrived we had choices to the entire country.
Terminal C is still the best commuter terminal with easy connections to the world. Too Bad Delta does not value their customers needs by forcing us to use overworked and crowded ATL.
Mr. Leocha,
I wouldn’t bet on DTW being dehubbed anytime soon. At present, Detroit is Delta’s second largest airport and its main gateway to Asia. Since the merger, Delta has been adding destinations served from DTW, including Rome and Hong Kong. It is easily the most modern and efficient Delta hub and the airport’s development was supervised by the current Delta CEO Richard Anderson while he was in charge of Northwest. As of now, I see no evidence that Detroit “dies as a ‘hub.’” I’m also curious as to why you would simply add Memphis in with CVG when it too has not suffered from the NWA-Delta merger. Though its status does seem a little shaky given its proximity to DL’s fortress in Atlanta, it has certainly not seen cuts similar to CVG. I’m a little surprised that you would simply accept one poster’s word about it.
The imminent closure of the Memphis hub has been reported for at least 20 years and 3 recessions. Yet it always manages to remain. It’s easy for uninformed, outside observers without a complete understanding of airline economics to dismiss Memphis based on small market size, but revenue is only part of the financial statement. MEM offers Delta very low operating costs. This is largely due to the economies of scale provided by sharing the airport with FedEx (who pays the lion’s share of the landing fees with their heavier aircraft). Unfortunately, CVG does not have this advantage, and must collect most of the costs of operating the airport from Delta.
If CVG is indeed de-hubbed, it almost certainly means that MEM will remain a hub. There is simply no way Delta can cram all its southeastern traffic into ATL for the long term. Maintaining a hub of some size in MEM gives them leverage in both present and future negotiations with ATL, provides a hedge against increased congestion or slot restrictions at ATL, and is actually a better connecting point for some city pairs…particularly between Texas and the Midwest/Great Lakes states.
The Cincinnati airport and Cincy’s Chamber of Commerce are under a lot of pressure to make a “can’t refuse” offer to Southwest Airlines. These two, CVG and WN, have been playing a form of chicken for years. This year, finally, the partnership will be formed. Delta, and possibly federal courts, will finally allow this transition for the good of the community. The final nail in the coffin for the DL’s Cincy hub, will be Southwest Airlines and addition of LGA hub, not DL’s overcapacity in the midwest.
I agree Detroit will be a hub for a very long time. You cannot beat the facilities anywhere in the United States and there are rarely delays due to the 4 parallel runways.